Guide to the Dwight H. Fee and Lucille B. Fee Papers

Dwight Humphrey Fee was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, on September 4, 1892, and his wife, Naomi Lucille Brockman Fee was born in Prosperity, Pennsylvania, on June 3, 1895. The Fees met in the summer of 1912, when he was a young journalist and she was a senior in high school. They were married four years later, in the summer of 1916, when he was working for the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times. After serving overseas in World War I, Fee returned to his wife and the newspaper in early 1919.

In May 1920, when viewing a mission pamphlet, Dwight Fee saw a call for a "publicity man" to serve in Egypt. For the next several months, he was in conversation with the Board of Foreign Missions of the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA) concerning the probable activities of this new and experimental work. The Fees applied to the Board in December and, in January 1921, they were appointed as missionaries to the American Mission in Egypt. They sailed from New York in May, traveled in Western Europe, and arrived in Alexandria, Egypt, on June 21.

From the summer of 1921 to the summer of 1923, Dwight and Lucille Fee worked in Egypt mainly to publicize the American Mission in Egypt to people in the United States. Traveling by automobile, train, and boat, they visited the mission districts in Lower, Middle, and Upper Egypt. Dwight Fee photographed both the mission work and the daily life of the Egyptian people, and amassed a sizable collection of photographs for publicity purposes. He produced news stories in support of the American Mission and sent these to newspapers of communities with UPCNA congregations, to UPCNA presbytery papers, and to the Board of Foreign Missions. He prepared material on the American Mission for Board of Foreign mission publications and was responsible for getting out the American Mission in Egypt pamphlets for tourists. Lucille Fee assisted her husband in his work and she wrote narrative accounts and letters, some of which were published.

In September 1922, Dwight Fee sent a letter to the Board of Foreign Missions with a proposal for a motion picture that would tell the story of the American Mission in Egypt and would be available to the United Presbyterian community in America. Although the film project was approved and funded, due to unforeseen circumstances, the production of the film did not proceed according to his plan. Filming commenced in March 1923 and the shooting, developing, and printing were completed in the summer. The Fees left Egypt in August and returned to Pennsylvania. Over the next several months, Dwight Fee edited and prepared the film for release. In early 1924, the Fees committed to an additional two years of service. They were assigned to travel with the film to different territories within the United States.

In 1926, Dwight and Lucille Fee left the mission service, and Dwight Fee resumed his career as a Pittsburgh journalist. The Fees raised their family in Mt. Lebanon Township and were members of the Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian Church.

Dwight Fee died on January 10, 1966, and Lucille Fee on March 3, 1973.